Blizzard Launcher

Blizzard Launcher (the application may actually be called the "World of Warcraft Launcher") is a utility application introduced with patch 1.8.3 to ostensibly provide news links and a minimal set of pre-launch configuration options for the actual game and the patch downloader. Behind the scenes it would also theoretically provide some measure of scanning and protection from trojan viruses and third party cheat programs.

Contents

Design change

Blizzard Launcher post patch 3.0.8.

With patch 3.0.8, the launcher was redesigned with a new look. Also added to the "Options" menu was a bare-essentials "Game Preferences" panel, "Downloader Preferences" panel, and a "Parental Controls" link to the "WoW Account Management" website.

Features

Act as a scanner and warn the user of malicious software.

Provide news links about WoW and Blizzard.

Control the options of the Blizzard Downloader in regards to pre-patching.

Controversy

There was a bit of controversy regarding the Launcher as it was scanning the computer for malicious software, which some people believed to be an invasion of privacy.

Security

The new Launcher may present a security issue. It does not obey the 'default' browser setting of Windows, and thus launches Internet Explorer when any link is clicked. Although this may be fixed in the future, in the past the 'Trial' Launcher has been observed to have some links obey the Default setting, and other links not obey the setting. Thus it could be said that although the Launcher is claimed to aide against some malware, its own behaviour and history of poor coding removes any benefit it may give in this regard.

Optimization

As of Patch 4.3.2 on the PTR, the launcher now has an "optimization" feature.

It will reorganize the game files currently installed on your hard drive to integrate all previous patch files, essentially "cleaning up" what’s on your computer and reducing the full installation size and will process these cleanups with no additional hard drive space required beyond what the patch is adding. Because of that you may see them appear more frequently with patches.[2]

Here is the message (it may launch a web browser to show this message) it gives when it first runs:

The Launcher is optimizing your World of Warcraft install. This is a process we run from time to time to improve game performance and reduce the size of the install on your hard drive.

The entire process will take approximately 15 minutes under normal conditions. Please do not close the Launcher or run World of Warcraft during this time.

Thank you for your patience!

History

Mac version

World of Warcraft Launcher.app 1.0.0.1276 - No version change, but undocumented updates downloaded on 5-Feb-2013.

World of Warcraft Public Test Launcher.app 1.0.0.1398 - As of PTRPatch 5.2.0 build 16486 on 26-Jan-2013.

Systems Patch

World of Warcraft Launcher.app 1.0.0.1276 - As of Patch 5.1.0A build 16357 on 10-Dec-2012.

World of Warcraft Launcher.app 1.0.0.1113 - As of Patch 5.0.4 build 16016 on 28-Aug-2012.